This article, from mid-December, about the ongoing mass radicalization of Americans is more relevant than ever. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/15/946381523/right-wing-embrace-of-conspiracy-is-mass-radicalization-experts-warn

What do you do when tens of millions of people are being herded into conspiracy thinking and extremist ideas? New "domestic terrorism" laws aren't going to stop that.

Part of the problem is that there is no one path to radicalization. Certainly President Trump, a conspiracy theorist long before he became president, has been a superspreader for these ideas. But he's not the only factor.

One thing that radicalizes people is a distrust in institutions. When they feel like nothing is stable, they turn to their "tribe" for safety. That's a big reason why "Stop The Steal" and "Plandemic" have been so dangerous.

"Stop the Steal" was pushed by many GOP and conservative leaders. It created a narrative that almost every major institution in the US was corrupt. Voting, the media, local leaders, state leaders, political parties, the courts, and Congress were all depicted as evil.

What do people do when they feel helpless and when they are told repeatedly that their voice doesn't matter? What do they do when they are led to believe that "evil" forces are in control?

They fight back.

We saw that play out on Wednesday at the US Capitol. The idea that members of Congress as well as the media were forced to flee or made to feel afraid, even for just a few hours, was seen as a major victory by those who now believe such institutions are the enemy.

This dynamic is not going away anytime soon. The trust that tens of millions of Americans lost in just a few months will not be restored overnight. The leaders who spread the lies that led to that distrust are, for the most part, still in power.

In the pro-Trump corners of the internet, people are talking as if what happened Wednesday at the Capitol was just the first attack of many to come. They've been led to believe they're fighting a holy war against dark forces who secretly control US institutions.

They've been told the republic is in danger, that the Constitution no longer protects them, that mass arrests and Civil War are at hand, that they should rather die standing up than die on their knees.

These were once the views of the few. We called it the fringe. Now, these paranoid beliefs belong to the many.

Can we come back from this? Can we return to reality? I have to believe we can.

How do we do that? I don't know yet. But I'm going to keep trying. You should too.